


Dungeon of the Mad Mage

by paperpalace



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: once i've worked out what to tag without it being very spoilery, tags will be added later on
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-28
Updated: 2018-09-28
Packaged: 2019-07-18 10:51:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16116884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperpalace/pseuds/paperpalace
Summary: The night after Teo goes missing, Zuko returns from having disappeared for three years. While everyone else ignores it, Sokka isn't too sure it's just a coincidence.It get's even stranger when he finds a young, tattooed, nameless bald boy hiding in his sisters room.





	1. Chapter 1

Fear.

It was all he felt, all he _could_ feel. Well, fear and... and that, that _thing_.

It clung to him, and no matter how hard he had scrubbed he could still feel it on his skin. Seeping through his pores and into his veins. He thought that maybe it was something he was going to have to live with. The constant, cold, erratic fear.

Shutting his eyes didn't help, yet he did it anyway. The scene playing itself out over and over and over again while all he could do was tremble and squeeze his eyes shut tighter.

Somehow, he was alive. Though it wasn't that much of a somehow when he focused on the heat. The heat that wasn't his. That wasn't the fears. The heat that oozed through the room, firm and steady. There to remind him that he was going to be okay. Nothing had gotten him. He was still ali- 

He was still alive.

The soft, steady voice kept telling him he was okay. That nothing was going to hurt him.

But all he could see was that thing. All he could hear was that thing. It hadn't hurt him, not really. But it had tried. It would have. It would have succeeded if he hadn't been rescued. If someone hadn't been willing to come after him, regardless of the consequences. Regardless of what that thing was and what it was capable of. 

It was hell he had decided.

 _No_. The soft voice responded, an almost bitter edge to his tone. _It's much worse than hell_.


	2. The Start

Sokka didn't expect much out of life. He would graduate, join the army, retire from the army after a decade and then join his fathers fishing company. That was, really, all he was expecting out of life. Perhaps he would get married and have two point five children, but that wasn't an expectation. A desire, maybe, one that could alter the course of what he expected out of life.

Waking up to Katara's wide, tear glistened eyes wasn't unusual but it wasn't expected either. Not since their dad had left two weeks prior, and Katara was usually happy enough up until the week he was due to come home and the week after he left. She was young, their mother had died when she was even younger. Sokka more than understood why she was so effected by their dad's job. 

"It's... It's Teo."

Sokka pulled himself up slightly, watching as tears began to flood down Katara's cheeks. His own heart began hammering in his chest. They had known Teo for almost their entire lives. Katara had befriended the younger boy on their first day of Kindergarten and the rest was history. While he got along with all his sisters friends, there was a soft spot there for the young boy - his mind was brilliant and Sokka enjoyed helping him with his inventions. Hell, if he wasn't headed to the army, he would highly consider trying to start a business plan with the kid.

"What about him?" Because it was best to keep a level head for as long as possible, remain calm until the worst hit.

Katara's bottom lip trembled. "He's missing. His dad called, no one can find him. They don't think he got home last night."

"That's not-" He cut off, his heart pounding in his chest.

 _I should have been there._ He thought bitterly. _I should have driven him home, I always drive him home._

Instead, while Katara and her friends had been having a Dungeons and Dragons night, he and his friends had been playing Vampire Masquerade. It was the first time that the two events had collided on the same night, if only because Katara and her friends hadn't been playing Dnd very long and had asked him to help them out for the first few games. 

Their first game alone, without him, and Teo disappears.

"It'll be okay. You know what he's like, he probably saw something cool, got an idea, and got lost. Chief Iroh will find him in no time at all." The words tasted like ash on his tongue. As if he was doing nothing but lie.

Katara's crystal gaze screamed volumes. She knew he was just trying to make them both feel better.

Rather than get up and ready for school, he pulled Katara into his arms and let her cry. His own tears slowly dripping into her hair.

It was half an hour before GranGran hauled them out of bed and forced them to get ready for school.

It was the first time in Katara's life being late, and Sokka didn't need her to say a word to know that she didn't care in the slightest. He suspected it might be the first time she ever decides against participation in class as well.

* * *

If the disappearance of Teo was weird, the reappearance of Zuko was even fucking weirder. And even more unexpected. 

Sokka had never been Zuko's friend. Not really. It was hard to be friends with someone who was so far above you in the chain that you were probably their servant in a past life. It didn't mean that he hadn't been friendly towards Zuko, they even hung out a few times when Zuko decided to be 'rebellious'. Sometimes it had hurt Sokka to think that Zuko thought he was so far below him that he was nothing more than something to make a point with. The older Sokka got, the more he wondered just how awful Zuko's father was that Zuko had to hide the fact he hung out with some 'commoner'. But it also made Sokka wonder if Zuko actually had viewed Sokka as a friend, if he was willing to rebel against his dad just to play. 

But then, three years ago, Zuko had disappeared. Nobody knew why. Very few people had even known where he had gone. There had been a million and one rumours, but Sokka thinks maybe he was one of the few people who knew the truth - if one of Azula's departing words had been the truth anyway.

_Zuzu's off to military school to learn some respect. Don't expect to ever see him again._

Azula tended to lie, and she had left the school smirking because daddy was sending her somewhere far better. And if Azula wasn't going to military school, most of him assumed Zuko was wherever his sister was. Yet, at the same time, Zuko was hardly his father's favourite, and Azula lied so often and so well that no one could really tell when she was being honest.

The lack of Azula, the presence of a nasty burn scar over Zuko's left eye, and the way he was suddenly holding himself implied that Azula hadn't lied. 

"Who's that?" Suki asked from where they were sat in English, leaning over the desk slightly to look past Sokka and towards Zuko. Sucking in a breath she shook her head slightly. "That's a nasty scar."

Sokka resisted the urge to snort. "Tell me about it. I want to ask, but at the same time I feel like walking up to him and saying 'Hey Zuk's remember me, we used to kind of be friends until you disappeared for three years. How'd you get the-" He trailed off. "Too rude. Even for me."

"You know him?" Suki leaned back in her chair, and Sokka shrugged. 

"Knew. Past tense. Tara doesn't like him. Thinks he's bad news because our mom died working for his dad. All bad blood. I thought he was okay. Pretty shitty at skateboarding, but badass at martial arts. Plus, don't tell anyone this, _but_ he's one hell of a dancer too."

Suki rolled her eyes before glancing passed Sokka once more. "I don't know. He doesn't scream trouble, but he doesn't look like good news either."

"Hmm." Twirling the pencil between his fingers, he decided against looking at Zuko. Didn't want the guy feeling yet another pair of eyes on him. Suki had an excuse, having only joined Caldera High the previous year she had never met Zuko before. Almost everyone else already knew him and so were just staring because of the scar. Sokka wasn't an idiot, he knew that was what was drawing attention. Mostly because he wanted to stare too. "He has had a bit of a make over. But, life happens."

Suki froze and slowly turned to look at him. Pink lips were pulled into a firm frown, her eyes had softened and there was too much worry written across her face.

"What's wrong?"

Blinking, Sokka shoved it all down. He knew the day wasn't going to go well, but that didn't mean he wanted to talk about it. So naturally, he blamed the only other different thing to occur in his day. 

Zuko.

If Zuko hadn't been there, Sokka's day would have gone by like any other day and maybe, just maybe, he could have been at least half focused on life. Half focused on school. If things had been normal he could have gone on to autopilot and most people would have been none the wiser. But his day wasn't as normal as possible, Zuko was there. He couldn't function on autopilot with such a stark difference in his day.

"It's nothing." He muttered.

"No, it's not." Suki urged.

Shaking his head, he looked at the board at the front of the room, but didn't see a single thing. "Haven't you heard?"

"Heard what?" Suki's hand landed on Sokka's shoulder. "Talk to me."

"Miss Kyoshi, Mr Waters, please do share with us what it is you're talking about."

Sokka could barely hear a thing with how loudly his heart was pounding in his chest. His blood felt like lava, burning through him.

"Teo went missing."

He felt sick. Like finally saying the words that Katara had uttered to him that morning was all it would take to break the damn.

All he had to do was get through the rest of the day. 

Get through the rest of the day, go home, eat GranGrans amazing dinner, help tidy up, do some homework with Suki and maybe Haru, and hope to got Katara didn't do anything ridiculously stupid - like go through with her idea to look for Teo herself. 

' _It's not that I don't trust Iroh to do his job, it's that nobody is as great at finding people as Toph._ ' While true, it didn't sound like a clever idea. 

One kid had gone missing already, he didn't need anyone else to vanish.

"Oh _Sokka_." Suki's hand squeezed his shoulder. "Iroh will find him."

He wanted to say that he knew that, but his tongue felt thick. Thick like the guilt that burned in his veins.

The class began muttering, their voices sounding muffled, almost as if Sokka was underwater. Perhaps he was, because he felt like he was drowning.

Drowning so deeply he could barely sense someone staring at him through the waves.

 

 

 

 


End file.
